Cursed Necropolis: Rio Grande Valley

After the power goes out, I hand out flashlights from my quantum pockets. This is clearly the work of shark guy, so we decide to wait for him to come to us so we can ambush us. A half hour later, we hear a man’s scream two rooms down from Anum’s room. We hear the staff going to investigating the scream. Also, Kazemde fails a memory roll, he gets a feeling of not wanting to be here on a boat. They guys investigating come back with a stretcher and moving the body.

Also, Kazemde mentions that we’re in the Dragon’s Triangle, which basically means that a whole bunch of weird shit, and that the lights on his ship back in the day had gone out. Kazemde looks out for anything strange, and only sees a guy with a flashlight checking around. There doesn’t seem to be anything strange going on outside at the moment this evening. We get told to stay in our room for security purposes, but we can tell that they’re nervous, and that they’re even checking the rooms that are empty.

Kazemde gets a very faint feeling of Sekhem, it’s flickering and moving about the boat at random.

I use my clairvoyance to scope the situation, and I get vision of black pyramids in a desert landscape, actually floating. There are forty of them, their size is unknown, as there is no sun in the sky. They pyramids also vanish and reappear at random.

Back on the ship, there is also smooth jazz in the background, coming from someone’s room. Probably playing it. Another half hour passes, and we hear another scream. Bahiti, in Anum’s room, is staying as still as possible. We hear another scream in the next half hour, this time on the deck. The smooth jazz is continuing, stopping only when the screams happen. Another guy comes guy, telling us to stay in our rooms.

After a bit, we hear the guys making patrols get in to an argument with the people who are playing music, but nothing happens, as they can’t really enforce it. It’s getting close to midnight. While burning time, I pull out weapons and ammunition to prepare for the worst.

Suddenly, a little stream of electricity comes out Bahiti, and now they have a working alarm clock. Suddenly, a tiny floating and rotating black pyramid pops in to the room, and pops out, accompanied by a flash of Sekhem.

We discuss moving to the ships vault, as the room is no longer secure, and I realize that we’re not moving.

Kazemde doesn’t remember how he dealt with this, but he remembers silent skeleton things trying to board the ship, and he was only able to drive them off by giving something that he had in a chest. We decide to all make our way to the Apostate. Anum asks me to keep an eye out for guns. I tell him I’ll need new coat (quantum pockets ftw)

The apostate is playing on the deck, and he has a crowd with him listening to the music. We get stopped by a guy telling us to go back to our room, but Anum bulldozes his pay through him. Kazemde has found a bunch of fancy knives, but no guns.

I hand out pistols to the group from my quantum pockets.

The Apostate waves to Kazemde, in a way that implies he wants him to join the band. The apostate asks for a few minutes before he jumpstarts Kazemde’s memory. The Apostate doesn’t know about the pyramids, but compares them to iPods. Kazemde has him do the memory thing. Kazemde remembers being in a giant cathedral made of stone, at a table drinking some sort tea. The Apostate is also there, talking bout something Kazemde isn’t interested in. Suddenly a pyramid shows up, projects text on the table asking him what he wants to eat, Kazemde places his order, and a little bit later it comes back with a meal.

Kazemde does it again, this time regarding the skeletons. He remembers fighting a tooth and nail to keep his treasure, but facing a rebellion from his crew, is forced to give up his treasure. Kazemde keeps this to himself, but explains that they’re basically servants.

Anum tells Citlali to try and woo some of the crew to get us food and drinks. She manipulates a guy in to doing that, and says he’ll roll out a fridge. Kazemde and the Apostate have a talk about the good old days.

Bahiti, when touching the fridge, turns it on for a good few minutes. We decide to try and find the engines so Bahiti can power it. We don’t have a map, but Bahiti uses her new electricity power to power her phone that has the civilian map to cross reference it with Kazemde, who knows where everything valuable is, and where nothing valuable is.

On our way to the engine room, we pass by the safe, which is partially open. We investigate, as Kazemde is mad that someone might be taking his stuff. Inside, there are two bodies on a stretcher and Kazemde’s loot is gone. There are some medical supplies, so we grab them and I put them in my quantum pockets so I can abuse it forever.

We get to the engine room, and I start having a very very light mechanical vision. We find a book of SOPs that has a section on restarting the engine. Bahiti on the other hand, knows her shit, and she takes care of it herself. She gets drained, but manages to turn it on, and I keep an eye on the door in case any shark guys come through the door, but either way, the ship starts to move.

Then mummies sense a rush of Sekhem coming towards us from all directions, through the walls, likely.

On the ship, we spend our time learning Japanese, I use my fractal powers to study it all, and in the meantime I notice that all the gears and turbines are all gone now. Thank goodness. Bahiti uses her mummy powers to learn the language quickly. In the meantime, I notice that the drug trade on the boat has collapsed. A bunch of angry tourists are wanting drugs, but they aren’t being sold.

Bahiti also gets one of her dreams about a small child sitting in a wooded area pulling the wings off dragon-flies. Bahiti interrogates the child, but not much comes of it other than the child is hungry and was looking for Bahiti. Apparently BAhiti met the child once before, when the child was an old woman. Citlali and Bahiti join a japanese study group to learn japanese.

Kazemde steals candy.

I investigate the collapse of the drug trade, apparently the suppliers have stopped selling. I “intimidate” the seller kid in to setting up a meeting with his supplier. I get a meeting set up in a sushi shop.

Bahiti and Citlali are in the japanese classes, having reversed conversations to familiarize themselves with the language. Citlali notices that one staff eyeing Bahiti, she tells Bahiti. The guy looks normal enough, though. Citlali decides to keep an eye on him in return, but afterwards decides to leave.

Using my quantum pockets, I get a crew manifest for Bahiti, and learn that the guy (James Fernandez) staring at her was a cook for a celebrity restraints.

Meeting with the drug supplier, who is also James Fernandez, I learn that he threw all the drugs overboard. He says there are more important things in life than screwing over rich white people. He is lying his ass off, and he’s only here because he thinks he has to be here to deal with me. I call him on it and he brushes me off. I decide to follow him, but he goes back in to his room, so I go back to mine and recon him with my clairvoyance. I get a vision from his point of view of a whole turkey, that he picks up and puts behind his back, there is ravenous eating sounds. Suddenly the turkey is gone, and he goes to watch TV. In the mirror, something on his back is eating the turkey.

I recall a hawaiien story about the children of the shark god, who look like men but they have a shark mouth on the back. Also you should never feed them meat, or they’ll go in to a feeding frenzy. This guy is not going in a frenzy, however. I check out the wiki on the shark god.

We decide to keep an eye on him for now, as well as keep Bahiti under protection.

Citlali and I learn that our ship is about to enter an area known as the dragon’s triangle, basically the bermuda triangle of the pacific. Kazemde remembers being attacked when he was a pirate by shit like a flying whale and skeletons while sailing through there. Eventually he decided it wasn’t going to deal with this anymore, and took the long way around.

Citlali notices that as we get closer to the dragon’s triangle, shark guy is keeping a closer and closer eye on Bahiti, including keeping a notebook, and marking specific dates as well as writing names of other staff.

I notice that shark guy is putting on a lot of weight really quickly, more than a human should be.

Kazemde decides to steal Bahiti by using a food cart and carting her from her room to Anum’s. I bribe a guy to cooperate and smuggle kazemde in and Citlali out. We succeed masterfully.

Citlali and I note that shark guy is now super confused as to why there is no more noise coming from Bahiti’s room.

The next day, there is a knock at Citlali’s door, it’s James, with a cake. I open the door and deal with James, after a bit of stonewalling him, his face goes blank and he walks away. The sharkgod legend mentions shapeshifting, but I’m not certain how much shapeshifting is going on. A little bit later, we get a shipwide announcement asking for James and Jason. Shark guy and prank staff guy have gone missing, apparently.

There’s another knock at the door, and it’s “Bahiti” acting all panic-y. I pretend to play along and ask her why she’s scared, Not!Bahiti says she thinks that the shark guy found her, but she realizes that I’m faking the conversation, and runs away. Citlali and I note how shark guy is “circling” us, trying to probe for Bahiti, and he’ll likely come back.

Then the power goes out.

A sharkman stalks Bahiti. When he was just a man, I cared little. I spend most days in study, preparing for Japan. Finding he is a sharkman with a mouth upon his back, I am concerned. The last man-shark we fought had powerful companions.

I suggest we hide Bahiti and wait for it to attack. Perhaps, we can confound the thing until we reach port. Kazemde is more than able to deceive it, as I expected. Days later, we find it is also a shape-shifter of some sort.

I wonder if we might use it to gift Kazemde with shape-shifting. He would surely treasure the power. and, I feel a bit guilty that he keeps trying to aid me and I have given him so little in out travels.

I will spend a day in thought, if I can, and try to discern a way to copy the spirit hunters from my past vision. I like the idea of a sharkskin and tooth belt…

Citlali gets a message from Elon, giving us an itinerary for a cruse ship to Japan. There is also a button at the bottom that says “accept currier delivery”. She pushes the button, everyone else gets an email with a boarding pass, and a bike currier comes up to Citlali out of nowhere with a package for her. It has two iPhones and a wallet for Citlali in it. The wallet has a blank piece of laminated paper and a blank card, and a letter that explains how they’re basically magic ID paper.

As the cruse is in two days, we go to Universal Studios and have ourselves a party. We ride the Revenge of the Mummy ride based on the movie franchise. Then on the second day we go to Disney Land. We gleefully abuse our magic ID paper to see and do everything.

Then we go to the MS quantum of the seas. For some reason, the ticket is $65,000, but it’s prepaid. Everyone on board looks rich and classy, except for Anum, who is wearing shorts and an overly large hawaiian shirt. We take off on a month long cruse with a stop in Hawaii. Kazemde steals most things.

While enjoying my cruse, I notice a rather prominent drug trade on the ship. Citlali is pretty sure she notices Irah. Kazemde notices someone who looks like the person who was introduced to him as “The heretic”.

Citlali waits for Irah to start applying sunscreen to herself before approaching. Irah freaks out, and demands why she’s here. Irah is apparently “absconding” to Japan. Irah doesn’t believe that we are just “on vacation”.

I try to trace the source of the drug trade, after a few days of casually looking around, I find a group of people who know that there are rich people who get on the cruse to get drugs, so they bought some and came on board to sell some. I decide to let this go, as the only people who are getting hurt are rich people, and no one cares about them.

Citlali notices that Irah is avoiding us, she’s also unhappy because she has no escape possible from any trouble.

Kazemde goes about his business stealing everything that isn’t noticeable when it vanishes. He waits until Hawaii until he does something about The Heretic, he just walks up to him and asks “are you the heretic?” The heretic says yes, asks if Kazemde is available to play cymbals with them. Kazemde asks if the Heretic is willing to explain his Apotheosis to Anum. The heretic says okay, but Kazemde is paying for dinner. Kazemde takes him to Anum.

Anum and Citlali are looking for a Luau. Citlali mentions Irah to Anum, Anum writes a note “How many times have I proposed to you? :) <3” to give to Irah. Irah writes a note back to Anum, and Citlali invites her to a Luau with them. Irah says she’ll think about it. Irah’s note says “4, the same number of times you’ve put me in to the ground”

We all go a Luau to try and enjoy ourselves. Irah shows up and lets Anum know that he hasn’t actually been to Hawaii before. She’s confused as to what Anum is doing, but doesn’t directly ask.

We get back on the boat, Anum gets a book to learn japanese, Kazemde tries to introduce The Heretic to Anum. After a game of telephone and other shenanigans, Anum meets the Heretic. Kazemde tries to get the two to talk, but the heretic is just like “Anum is as close to Apotheosis as you can get, do you have any questions?” Anum says he’s here for the dinner The heretic “Me too!” Kazemde doesn’t know what to do anymore, or why he bothers. After a brief conversation, it’s revealed that the path to apotheosis is about doing your own thing, rather than obeying your masters. Kazemde is surprisingly almost there, he just needs to accept being mortal. Kazemde says “not going to happen”. The heretic however, grants Anum a temporary (ten seconds) memory rating of 10. Anum gets a memory of hanging out with two people in japan, a Jesuit, and Oda Nobunaga. After trying again to recall a specific memory, Anum recalls himself being a lot sterner and a lot more militant, and an attempt to find apotheosis though martial discipline.

The heretic offers this to Kazemde, and he takes him up on it. Kazemde recalls some caches of loot for the “betterment of the people”. The Caches were in Hiroshima. The Heretic then says that Anum and Kazemde should be lighter with their cult. Says to not treat Citlali and Bahiti like how the gods treat them.

Ryan offers to buy the heretic some ice cream try the memory trick. I recall that I was in Irem, and tried to keep in touch with the people who I was with on the expedition, but because of that I got a first hand account of people being turned in to mummies, having their limbs torn off and their souls sent on a harrowing journey where they might be destroyed.

I ask for knowledge about my fractal state, I take 1 bashing damage and my head hurts as I get a memory of myself fighting zombies (which have never existed) in contemporary times, and I get a sense of something powerful and robotic watching me. My takeaway is that this Fractal shit can’t be explained by the logic of the the world the mummies know.

Bahiti wants to know how many times she’s reincarnated, she gets a flash of many different lives, until it settles on one of Anum and his first cult. Anum seems to remember her, but she didn’t. She also has a memory of something killing millions of people. Her second attempt gets her a memory of her being a consort of Oda Nobunaga, and this being an issue for Anum.

Citlali wants to know if Bahiti and her have always been related, as every time they’ve looked in the past, that seems to be the case. She gets a few streams of memories of head cultists setting up cults for Anum. Her family (literal and figurative) have been keeping the cult going. The second memory she gets is a member of that family giving up her soul in order to keep the cult going. Finally, she wants to know if Anum has ever had kids. She gets a memory of Anum in Japan, in an effort to master his body, trying to get past the limitation of mummies not being able to have kids, there is at least one success. Some of them might be “hers”.

As we wait to leave for Japan, I continue to look for new human experiences. Amusement parks are not amusing so much as interesting. I find some very good food. Cotton Candy is especially enjoyable. I make sure to buy shorts and a bright flowered shirt for the cruise.

We shortly find that the car dealership manager has a long reach. He delivers a replacement telephone to Citlali. Once aboard, we also find Irah is fleeing North America.

I truly enjoy walking the decks of the ship. It does not toss or roll, but the sea air and sounds give me a feeling of comfort and familiarity.

In Hawaii, I look for a luau. Irah seems concerned about our presence. I decide to try to put her mind at ease and gather some free information. She lets me know I have not been to Hawaii before and that I have both killed and married her 4 times. It feels right. That she is confused by my behavior and what I seek confirms I am doing something new.

Kazemde invites me to dinner with someone he calls The Heretic. It seems likely he has found Apotheosis. As he is a musician, I consider studying music. Then, I feel that is wrong. I must find my own interests. During our conversation, he confirms my feelings. I seem to be doing something different with this life and it is truly leading to Apotheosis. I must simply survive this. Later, he aids me in recalling that I was a lieutenant of Oda Nobunaga and friend to a Jesuit priest, Alessandro Valignano. It is an interesting evening.

As we leave Hawaii, I understand I need to start preparing for Japan. I begin to look for strong, male figures in Japanese culture. After some looking, I find the strong bearing of Toshiro Mifune is a good fit. The computer says he was a soldier and actor, raised in China and successful in Japan. He is also often funny. I also find a survey of favorite Japanese historical figures. I decide from the list Charlie Chaplin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Walt Disney would be good to study. The number one is Oda Nobunaga who I have already decided will be a focus of my studies in Japan.

We decide to commit and find the dude who Not!Elon Musk wants us to find. Apparently the last guy who fingered for the blame in a half-assed kinda way got shot in the head. Oops. I send Kazemde in to spy on them to find any evidence of wrongdoings.

Kazemde goes in and marks people with ink to see if they happen to be strange or not. He notices a guest list on it for a behind the scenes shindig and writes our names on it.

I conjure up some contractor badges for all of us using my In My Pocket power.

Citlali tries in vain to convince Anum to act as santa clause for her sexy santa disguise so she can go in and take pictures of people. No luck, she eventually just does it herself. She gets most of the staff, until one of the head people comes down (middle age man) and yells at us to stop doing this and do it after the wrap-up party.

I take the photos and send them to my underworld organization to see if they have criminal connections. Most of it petty drug crimes, nothing major. We decide to go to the after party to continue the photo op, and hopefully get some info on the higher ups on the place.

Meanwhile, Kazemde notices that a several people been wearing the same clothes that he marked, but the clothing is strangely no longer marked. This gives us a list of people who might be involved.

The people getting the ink off of them are mostly people who are acting on stage, and the ink is just straight up disappearing. One of the producers has apparently been there most of the time. Kazemde goes to mark people, once more people get in to fights “over making them look unprofessional”. The producer guy seems to just be watching, and the marks don’t actually disappear while they’re in his view. By the time rehearsal starts again, two people no longer have ink on them.

Kezemde splashes paint on the lead man in the show, his outfit is drenched in paint. He goes nuts and runs back stage, I watch him with my clairvoyance. He meets up with a guy to help change clothes the clothes guy causes the lead guy to go limp, and metallic needles start coming out of my shoulder.

We exit, call !Elon and tell him about the hairdresser. I ask him about the shoulder things, he said they’re like a birth mark and not to worry about it (I worry about it, plus they’re visible to mortals when weird stuff is going down). We go to him and ask for our new passports and IDs. We get to watch the hairdresser get shot, which produces a bright flash, and then !Not Elon gives us our stuff. He gives us a number to contact him if we need to, and we head out.

We devise and complete a plan. Along the way, I am asked to disguise myself as Santa Clause as a distraction for the plan.

I simply cannot understand this. The computer says Saint Nicholas was a Greek man. I am not Greek. I have never been Greek. I certainly never paid the dowry for poor farmer’s daughters. I have never quelled storms, nor multiplied grain shipments. The idea is ridiculous.

More, I dislike furs and layer clothing. I am most comfortable in thin fabrics and warm climates. This ‘Santa suit’ is constructed of embarrassingly poor quality, artificial furs. I simply will not wear it unless faced with dire consequences. Citlali and Bahiti seem intent on embarrassing me with this outfit but I will not have it.

Worst of all, I am expected to smile and laugh and ‘be jolly’, which, I am assured is easy. I do not find this easy. I find it shallow and nearly incomprehensible. What purpose is served by taking commemorative pictures with a stranger dressed as a myth?

Despite my refusing the ‘very important’ request, the plan succeeds.

The manager of the car dealership gives us contact information. I warn it should be disposed of immediately.

It occurs to me: would dressing as Santa Claus have helped me understand Santa Clause?

Suddenly Bahiti vanishes mid-drive, I hear the sound of gears grinding just before noticing that she vanished.

We pull over, because between spacial loops and people vanishing, continuing driving seems like a bad idea. Interestingly, the cars were all different despite everything else on the road being the same. It looks like we’re the only people subject to this effect.

Kazemde breaks off a chunk of wall and throws it in to traffic to test to see if we can interact with the world. It hits a truck, so we can interact with the world. We decide to climb up the side of the embankment to see if we can escape. We find a car dealership, Tesla. Kazemde goes to steal a key for a car to pick us up. He notices that the floor inside the dealership is has electrified plates on it, except for the area around the desk where the attendant is.

Kazemde tires to invisibly teleport behind the attendant to give him a sleeper hold, the attendant suddenly turns in to a being of light with four legs and yells “stop”, Kazemde stops. The guy turns back in to an office worker, says that he didn’t expect to give us this kind of a welcome. Asks where Kazemde’s friends are, Apparently this guy is a representative of the Order of the Universe, Elon Musk. Really wants to talk to us.

Kazemde calls to Anum to get the rest of us over to where they are. He’s willing to help us with our “documentation” problem if we’re willing to help him with a few things. He turns to me, wants me to spearhead a project for him. Wants me to identify some guys who work for an organization that opposes his, willing to try and unlock my “fractal abilities” to assist in this.

I agree, what the heck, you only live once.

Everything goes nuts and I can now see the world made of machines, oil and gears. (I can use the “fractal” template)

Elon gives us the details on what we need to do. There’s a studio where one of the agents of the enemy organization in a studio and wants us to suss him out, then he leaves.

Bahiti, on Anum’s suggestion, memorizes the information and then tosses the phone. After driving for a bit, Anum suggests we cut all ties to the Elon Musk imposter and just give him a random person and bail on the whole thing, as we’ll just get caught deeper in his web.

I’m still seeing the world in the form of gears, oil and wires, I also get a vision of a being of Demos, who helps me calm down.

We send Fernando to take care of the mission, after a few hours he calls us and says that the place is run “Too perfect” and that it’s shady because of the sheer lack of shady-ness. Says that if we want him to identify the mole he’ll need to join the place and work there for a month. We tell him to find someone “slightly too perfect” or “slightly less perfect”, he says the only guy like that is the gate guard who he bribed to get in. We say this is perfect, and send the information to Elon. Then Citlali to get a call. It’s Elon, and he wants us to actually make an effort. “That would be great.”

Making no progress towards Los Angeles, Bahiti vanishes. We pull over to investigate and find a suspicious middle-of-nowhere car dealership. Within, Kazemde confronts the manager. The man claims to be one of The Order of the Universe.

The man says he will make our identification papers legitimate if we will complete a task for him. He tells Ryan Myer that he will give him new power. I agree so that we can leave this place.

Once we leave, I suggest cutting all ties to the odd man and not pursuing his task. I am very afraid of what he might be.

Fernando is sent to do a poor job. It should have freed us. Instead, my fears are confirmed when the man calls to Citlali and tells her we need to give the task our best effort.

When the time came for Azar to make at last the Ascent, he journeyed to the top of the tallest mountain, that he might gain admission to the heavens. Yet, the distance between the earth and the floor of the Light Land just outstretched his reach, and Azar fell to despair. Then sun broke through the clouds, and beyond that rift, he caught a twinkle in the eye of Ptah, the Nameless Bull, who, on a shaft of golden light, sent down a ladder of the finest craft. Descending to earth with the ladder came the god Re, the Nameless Lion, and on the ladder’s other side, the goddess Esit, the Nameless Falcon. The two held the ladder sturdy upon the earth, that Azar could make his ascent. Their task complete, the Three returned to the Light Land and bade Sutek, the Nameless Serpent and Lord of Dust and Storm, descend to earth and become the eternal guardian of the perfect ladder of Ptah.
This, people of the Black Land, is why we place the effigy of the ladder in the tomb, why we remind the gods of their duty to shepherd us to the blessed afterlife. This is why we learn the words in life that we must speak to the ladder in death:

“I pay homage to thee, O divine ladder!
Homage to thee, O ladder of Sutek!
Stand thou upright, O divine ladder, whereby
Azar came forth to the Light Land.
For I am thy son, I am Azar of old, and thou shall give to me the ladder of Sutek. I need plow no earth, nor collect any offering, for that which I see and hear shall feed me and nourish me when I appear in the
Light Land by the ladder of Sutek.
I have gathered together my bones, I have collected my flesh, and I shall go quickly to the Light Land by the two fingers of great Sutek, god of the ladder!”

Ryan’s notes

While we’re driving, Anum gets a memory of himself in this area of him getting buried in a tomb with a lot of text written on it. He wants to see if he can find it. He also remembers a lake nearby I check on google maps for an area like that. There is a border crossing, and any underground crossings will cost a lot of money.

We decide to take out the internet to the border control to get Anum across. Bahiti and Citlali find the equipment we’re looking for,

I call my underworld organization that I have (retroactively) been building up, and we get in contact with a guy who has a tunnel going across the border, but it’s risky as there is a possibility we could get caught in a bust. I don’t want to take the risk, so I give them our guns and go with the plan on taking out the internet for the border control.

I shoot out their internet cable as Anum goes through, they aren’t able to confirm his identity, so they let him through as he doesn’t look like an illegal immigrant.

We meet up with what is apparently a member of the Templar Cartel (this is unusual as they (my organization) weren’t able to do that before), and get our guns back.

We make our way in to town and rest for the evening, before we continue to look for Anum’s memory source. We make our way to a place between the town and an airport out in the wilderness, Anum starts wandering to where he thinks he needs to go. After a bit, we find what we were looking for. It’s a legend about the patron god of Irem, and how he ascended, there are references to apotheosis by a different name. It appears to be Anum’s tomb. We start taking pictures of everything to record it and plan on digging it up to see what’s inside. While digging, he finds additional writing describing a ritual to purge oneself of Sekhem, but it’s untested.

Kazemde reappears, apparently he was talking to Irah. Anum tells him how awesome we were while he was gone. We head to Los Angeles. Anum recalls the previous incarnation of Bahiti yelling at Kazemde for vanishing for long periods of time. Apparently he was dicking around / helping Moses.

Kazemde asks Ryan to help him find a mummy who is very good at not being found. He gives me a description of the mummy “Le Sony’r, The Apostate”, who does not apparently register as a mummy and is impossible to detect with supernatural methods. I agree.

On our way to LA, the others notice that every single thing that could go wrong while traveling, are happening, and is delaying us. I on the other hand, am pretty sure I am getting deja vu. We’ve driven this highway more than once, and we have driven this highway more than once. We appear to be in a temporal loop.

I have a memory of a hill by a lake. It is peaceful. I think I once left some items there, in case of future need. I may have been buried there, I am not sure.

The computer finds the hill. We have little difficulty in crossing the border. There is a large stone marking the place on the hill. It is inscribed but I do not know its meaning. It tells a story of Irem’s patron god, Azar. Buried beneath the stone, I find some writing that seems to be a ritual to purge Sekhem. I suppose I could attempt the ritual. But, I did not try it before. Or if I did, it did not result in Apotheosis.

Kazemde returns and is now looking for Le Sony’r, The Apostate. While someone can learn carpentry from a carpenter, I am doubtful I can learn Apotheosis from the Apostate. I suppose we will still look for him.

We continue our drive to Los Angeles. Seeing that we have driven for hours without progress, we decide some sort of magic is preventing our travel.

We calm the body. She has few memories but recalls Anum, Irah, and Kazemde were present to bury her. I am suspicious of many details. But, she has a right to try to live. I no longer care why I buried her. I do not know her. I was probably following the dogma of the Judges, at the time.

She wishes to travel on foot and not with us.

Kazemde vanishes again.

I wish I found this unusual. I do not seem to live a normal life and wonder if that will hurt my attempt to find apotheosis.

We get to the middle of nowhere carhop and attempt to buy a van. The guy (secretly) has to remove a stash of something from the van, but we can get it in the morning.

We head out using google maps to plot a route and make our way to L.A.

Kazemde returns from having vanished and has a book for Anum that Irah wanted.

We stop for a bite to eat. It’s bland sichuan food.

While driving, Citlali’s axes start to glow. Apparently something is resonating with them based on proximity. They also seem to be getting brighter the further we drive. As we get closer to El Paso, the axes are shining like a strobe. As we leave El Paso, the axes dim. We turn around and check out El Paso to investigate the axe.

We drive up and down the streets of El Paso to see how the axes react. It takes us straight to the border, where there is a large concrete wall with towers. The towers have cameras and possibly more people inside. We decide to sneak the mummies over, and the mortals just make their way through with their US citizenship.

Kazemde sneaks in, takes out the guys in two of the towers and makes his way over the wall. Anum tries to make his way over sneakily, but ends up twists their ankle. We go through the border patrol normally and meet up with the mummies.

We continue looking, using the axes as a guide. We’re lead in to a park area, the light is now bright enough to blind us, thankfully it’s in the box. At the very edge of the park, we eventually find the location where the light dims, signifying the location of whatever the axes are reacting to. A test shows that whatever they’re reacting to is underground.

While they’re digging, Anum has the sense of having dug here before, but to bury something.

We eventually find a coffin. The axes’s light turns a brownish red. I point my gun at the coffin as a precautionary. We pop the coffin open and there’s a corpse in it (it does not explode). The corpse looks mummified (but is not a mummy). It’s female, 26ish years old. Some gold jewelry, faded woolen clothes. Kazemde tries to steal her jewelry using two branches. Succeeds.

Anum goes in to the coffin, taps her on the face and tells her to wake up. Anum pisses off his judge hard core, losses Sekhem. The corpse grabs Anum by the neck.

The broker failing, we decide to drive to Los Angeles by van.

Kazemde vanishes and returns with what I assume is the apotheosis book Irah mentioned. I have no use for it. But, I will read it to be certain as well as out of respect for the effort Kazemde has spent.

We stop for Sichuan or Szechwan food. It is from the south coast of China and very familiar. I have the Kung Pao Chicken and a Spicy Beef Dish. The food is very warm and savory but it makes my stomach hurt a bit. I order an extra serving of rice towards the end of the meal, hoping it will calm my stomach. The meal has been wonderful.

In El Paso, Citlali’s axes begin to shine. I do not know why. We divine a location with them and I recall burying a coffin here.

We unearth the coffin. The body within is desiccated and female. I pat its cheek to wake it and take a deep pleasure in knowing my Judge attempts to punish me for the act. When the body grabs my neck, I am startled more than scared.

Bahiti goes to talk to the captain to try and calm him down and do damage control. Tries to empathize and play on the “I’ve been dragged in to this crazy world too” angle. He doesn’t respond well, but just seems to need some alone time.

With the boat totaled, I try to contact some people in the underworld to try and see if they can smuggle us to asia. I end up calling Fernado somehow. I ask him if he knows a way to get to Asia. He says we would have to go to Columbia but would have to travel with prostitutes. He seems reluctant to return to Columbia. I ask how we’re getting to Columbia, he just says “not by boat”. I ask him how much time to get things ready, says it’s like international travel and that it’s always going on.

I hang up and inform the others of this plan.

Citlali talks to Anum about calling Irah and telling her about what just happened with us and the boat. He says to just call her and tell her that we got jumped by a bunch of supernatural whacks and we bumped them off. Citlali calls Irah, hears gunshots and growls and asks if she can call Citlali back. Apparently the Mummy Convention was attacked, and it’s going badly for the attackers. We say we’ll call her back.

Bahiti and Citlali go to talk to the captain again, the captain calms down a bit and asks “what was that?” Bahiti says she doesn’t know. The Captain asks if he can walk away from the whole mess. Bahiti says yes, but it might be safer with us. He seems to calm down, and we ask him how long it’ll take to fix the ship. He says he has no idea. Anum asks him if there’s a ship that looks nice that he would like to captain for a little while. Says he lives the straight life.

Citlali gets a text message from Irah “Be careful with that ship, it’s not mine”. Oops.

Anum wants to go to a car dealership, he asks the captain to oversee the repairs. He then asks Citlali to give Irah’s number to the captain as a contact for who is responsible for the ship.

We then head to a car dealership, we know that there are place we can get a car very cheaply (from the cartels). I know that if we go to the middle of nowhere in Huston we can get a car.

We have a discussion about forging IDs for international travel to Columbia, during the talk Anum flashes back to being in Japan and deciding that his time there had been played out. The guy who he was a samurai for was corrupt, and had to put him down. He then went to a mummy called Niah who got him a writ to leave the country. Kazemde didn’t like him very much (Brokers vs thieves)

On the way to the car dealership, Citlali gets a text saying “Goddamnit that wasn’t my boat!” Citlali response in a snarky way, Irah demands that they call her, Citlali says they’re driving.

New plan: Find the Broker. We call Irah. the first thing she says is “How long did you have that boat! This is why we can’t have nice thing!” We ask if she has any way of contacting the Broker. Anum and Kazemda can tell she’s having a memory episode, she says she knows that guy and he might be at the convention with her. She checks the list of people invited to the mummy connection. She says she can get us his phone number.

Anum and Irah have a bit of a spat about who owes who what. Irah wants to borrow Kazemde again. Kazemde says sure, Irah hangs up to get us the number. We go to a dinner and have something to eat while waiting for the phone call. When Irah calls us back, she says she can use Kazemde and Bahiti for stealing the book of Apostate. She says the Broker wont meet by cell phone. Bahiti isn’t interested in working with Irah, Irah temps her with learning about her powers, says she needs someone like Bahiti who can move outside their own body to check behind the “gate of spirit.” Irah tries to bribe Bahiti, but she’s not going for it. Anum is laughing at the fact that Irah is getting told “no”.

Irah grudgingly accepts this fact “thanks for making my life harder”. The Broker wants to meet at a Starbucks of our choice. We go to the one in the town we came from.

The broker shows up, dressed in a suit and driving a black sudan. I can tell he’s packing a small gun, and an ear piece (stupid tiny and flesh colored) and a wallet on a chain. He sits down with us.

Anum asks “do you remember japan” the broker says “vaguely”, Anum says the broker helped Anum get out of the country. The Broker says that was supposed to be a favor for Irah, and that she’s on everyone’s shitlist. Anum says he wants to go to Japan/China/Southeast Asia. Asks if the broker if he can help with getting an ID. The broker says it’s fine, asks how much Anum wants to pay. The Broker says Anum introduced him to his wife, so he had no credit. Anum asks what he would be interested in. The Broker says “I’ve been told you tend to get a group together”.

Kazemde thinks “I am a strong independent mummy! I can do my own thing!”

The Broker wants to borrow Anum’s Cult to do something that he’s not going to tell other mummies about. Anum says he might know something about that. The Broker says he’ll trade information about his plan to get us to asia if Anum will tell him what he knows about the job. The Broker says that he and Irah are both recruiting for the same operation and they both need Anum’s people. He also says he can get Anum to Japan almost immediately. Anum says his people do his own thing, the broker says he’s clearly talking to the wrong person, as Anum has less than he thought he did.

He turns to Citlali "What do you think your god wants the most " Citlali: he wants to discover more about his own past. The rest of us “Apotheosis”.

The Broker “if you work with me I’ll get you all of Irah’s records, and someone who might has achieved apotheosis, on top of the immediate trip to Japan.” Anum says he’ll give the Broker ten grand to give them an ID,the broker is confused, says “you underestimate the effect you’ve had in Japan.” Talks about how the mummies are a known factor and that things exist to stop to mummies from traveling. Anum doesn’t care. The broker can’t/wont give us the ID, Anum says he’s going to get a Latte and the Broker leaves.

As we recover from the boat attack, Citlali contacts Irah. The local trouble involves her, as well. I had assumed as much.

The consensus is that we are safer leaving the area and then traveling to Japan. Thinking on this, I recall killing a superior and being aided by a mummy named Niah when I left the country.

Irah tries to convince my friends to aid her in some scheme. They refuse her. I think this is the feeling of funny.

I enjoy another local restaurant. I wonder if I will tire of this over time. Perhaps. I simply enjoy it for now.

Irah tells us to meet a broker. I think he is Niah. The broker attempts to recruit my friends for the same job as Irah. I find this less funny the second time. Of course, my friends refuse to be pawns. The broker warns me that mummies are known in Japan. He implies it was my fault. Seeing he will not assist us, I decide to try a latte and change my mind. I will have a hazelnut macchiato.

The Shulpa woman lets out a magic scream, but Citlali makes her will save and is unaffected. There is a smell of industrial smoke everywhere. She then moves to decapitate the shulpa woman, grabbing her by the hair and going for the neck. However, the shulpa woman suddenly stops bleeding, and the wounds fill with a black shadow. The woman starts to move thanks to this and move towards cover.

Kazemde goes towards the two people who are threatening up the captain, he moves up between the two of them and makes to stab them both in the temple. Just before he lands a hit one of them (a lady with two hammers) dodges and tries to protect the other guy, Kazemde gets him in the neck, clipping the jugular.

Targeting the leaf-man, I notice that he’s solid (not made of leaves) below the belt. I shoot at his balls. However, his limbs and body shudder thanks to the tornado effect, but I manage to tag him in the balls. He screams in pain, it sounds like static jurassic part t-rex roar. He speeds his motion up and moves towards me.

Anum uses his axe to breaks open the sternum of the sharkbouncer, pry open the chest and throw other major organs (other than the brain) in other cardinal directions. He’s performing an unmumification ceremony to make sure that this guy does not come back to life. At all.

Bahiti does not get hit by any intestine.

Tornado guy runs at Anum, starts “death of a thousand cuts”-ing him. It’s all shark teeth, leaves and insect venom. Anum sounds as loud as he can (with a mouth full of venom and leaves) “Kazemde”.

The twohammer woman leaps back at Kazemde and slides between Kazemde’s legs, slashes his ankles and stabs both the hammer prongs in to his calves. Ouch.

The baseball bat guy thaws the bat right at Kazemde, it seems to do a lot more damage than it should (magic!)

Bahiti tries to generate fire, somehow gets lightning to strike the corpse Anum is dismembering. Also gets hit with backlash.

Shulpa woman jumps in to the air and turns translucent, screams again like a banshie at Citlali. The scream sounds different, it’s now like a force of pressure waves and Citlali starts to bleed from the ears. However, shulpa woman continues to back off, it seems like she’s trying to escape.

Citlali isn’t letting her escape, she charges the shulpa woman and performs a spinning chop to try and cut her good. Citlali’s axe hooks in to the woman’s collar bone and she manages to drag the shulpa woman to the ground with her. As a bonus, the wound she took earlier is bleeding again.

Kazemde goes nova and turns in a giant fiery phoenix. The Shulpa people go “oh crap”. He flies up in to the air and hurls molten glass at the the tornado guy who’s attacking anum. The tornado guy gets pushed down through the pier and in to the water, and is soon drowned/vaporized. The sand in the area is acting up thanks to this, forcing us mortals to hold our breath. It also obscures our vision.

I hold my action to weather the storm of Kazemde.

Anum likewise holds his action to aim at the shulpa banshie lady.

Kazemde has flown a mile up in the sky, however the two hammer woman walks right under where Kazemde is. A pillar of black light flies up at Kazemde and hits him square in the face. She passes out after that, and there’s not a hole in the boat. All the way through. Goddamnit.

the shulpa banshie woman tries to scream, but she didn’t take in to account the rising sandstorm and that backfires, gagging her.

Anum takes a quick break to regenerate, and then starts to dismember the other people on the pier.

Kazemde throws more molten glass everywhere, all our enemies are ash and cinder now. The boat is now full of holes. Goddamnit Kazemde.

I yell at Kazemde to use his fire powers to fix the boat’s holes, using scrap metal in the area. Kazemde scramble to repair the boat before it sinks. He covers it as best he can, but he burns more holes in the boat in the process and causes microfractures in to the hull. Thankfully, the captain managed to get the boat over to the repair dock, and Anum asks Citlali to get a repair crew. Tells her to Ask Irah, but tells her not to tell Irah why they need a repair crew unless they get a trade out of it.

As the boat beings to burn, I complete unmaking the shark man. He will threaten us no more.

I hear screams but I am immediately set upon by the wind-teeth-leaf-man. His touch is a thousand burning cuts. I call to my friend Kazemde, the only man who can save me.

I am using Sekhem for the first time in weeks, I think. I am ashamed, feeling I will die begging for Judges’ aid.

Kazemde’s fire soon fells my attacker. Through the smoke and steam, I see a woman. Her scream is pain. I fire my rifle gun at her. I am not sure that I have hurt her, but she falls.

I take several, steadying breaths and feel my body healing. When I am able, I unmake the bodies of the other attackers.